Sweet and Sour Chicken

With Chinese New Year just around the corner (February 14th), I've been on a Chinese food cooking kick! In fact, I've been making a lot of Chinese dishes and my boyfriend has requested that I take a little hiatus, he is stir fried and dumpling-ed out I guess. As a kid, my first experiences in Chinatown in San Francisco involved two things: dumplings and sweet and sour chicken. After about 5 years of only ordering sweet and sour chicken, I ventured into other realms, but I certainly consider sweet and sour chicken a staple comfort food. I served it over brown basmati rice however this is one of those dishes that definitely tastes better with white rice if you have it. Unfortunately this picture doesn't show all the ingredients as clearly but there are some exciting things in here - like pineapple! I wasn't able to find baby corn which I always associate with sweet and sour chicken so this recipe doesn't have it but if you can find it, use it! If you are looking to make this vegetarian, you can swap the chicken for tofu or more vegetables.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken, cut into bite size pieces

1 cup sliced pineapple

1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced

2 whole carrots, sliced

1/2 onion

1 handful bean sprouts

4 green onions, sliced

2 tablespoons fish sauce (veg: soy sauce)

6 tablespoons oyster sauce (veg: mushroom sauce)

4 tablespoons tomato ketchup

4 teaspoons sugar

4 tablespoons minced garlic

Oil

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a wok and add the garlic and fry until it is golden and fragrant.

2. Add the chicken and stir continuously until it is cooked through.

3. Add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup and sugar and stir constantly.

4. Add the pineapple, tomatoes, carrots, onion and bean sprouts to the wok. Stir until all these fresh vegetables are tender and cooked. Add the green onion and serve with rice.